Archive for the ‘honesty’ Category

More than the economy has melted down. What remains of big media credibility has also liquefied and won’t recover anytime soon, if it ever does.

Don’t take my word for it. The ombudsman for The Washington Post acknowledges that conservatives have a point when they claim an imbalance in coverage of Barack Obama and John McCain.

By Cal Thomas
The Washington Times
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In her Nov. 2 column, Deborah Howell writes, “…it’s true that The Post, as well as much of the national news media, has written more stories and more favorable stories about Barack Obama than John McCain. Editors have their reasons for this, but conservatives are right that they often don’t see their views reflected enough in the news pages.”

What might be “their reasons”? There is only one answer: Too many journalists have been in the tank for Mr. Obama and wanted to see him elected president. Some Post reporters (Ms. Howell doesn’t say how many) “complained to me that suggestions for issues coverage have been turned aside” in favor of horse-race coverage, despite reader complaints about too much coverage of the race itself and not enough of the candidates’ positions on the issues.

Journalism is the only profession I know that ignores the wishes of its consumers. If a department store found that most of its customers preferred over-the-calf socks to ankle-length socks, would that store ignore customer preferences for the longer socks because the president of the company preferred the ankle-length style? Not if the store wanted to make a profit in the sock department. Yet journalists have this attitude: “we know what’s good for you, so shut up and take it.”

Even as he stood humbly in defeat, the media that couldn’t get enough of ignoring or belittling John McCain did it again. The most conservative newspaper in America, The Washington Times, while praising Navy hero John McCain, couldn’t care enough to correctly cite the aircraft carrier upon which he almiost died in a terrible fuel and rocket stoked fire: USS Forrestal. The Times said it was “USS Forester.”
USS Forrestal: 134 sailors died in a terrible fire which
trapped John McCain; but he escaped

This might be a small thing as the nation rejoices in a history making event, but to a Navy veteran and journalist like me, this is the emblematic end error in a long line of oversights, errors, malignings and just outright not caring from the media toward Mr. McCain.

When the party celebrating Barack Obama’s historic victory clears, and it better be soon as their are many crises on his plate and on the national agenda, we, as a nation, need to take a hard look at media objectivity, honesty and integrity…

John McCain said Thursday that Barack Obama is still not telling the “whole truth” about his association with 1960’s radical William Ayers despite explaining the relationship during Wednesday’s debate.

“Senator Obama didn’t tell the whole truth about his relationship with Mr. Ayers last night,” McCain said in an interview on Fox News. “They served together on boards, together they made a decision to give $230,000 to ACORN, the group that is now being involved in what could be one the great voter frauds in American history.”

The Arizona senator also accused Obama of not fully explaining his association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

“He certainly didn’t reveal all of his relationships with ACORN, which his campaign paid $832,000 in the primaries to a front group for ACORN,” McCain said. “And you know what it was described as? ‘Lighting and site preparation’ Give me a break.”

“But we know this, that there are allegations of voter fraud by ACORN in every single battleground state. This is a widespread operation. Now we laugh when Mickey Mouse is registered to vote, but we don’t laugh, we don’t laugh, when there are voter rolls filled up with names that there is no authentication whatsoever. This could violate the most fundamental aspect of democracy and that is a free and fair election.

Pressed on his associations with Ayers and ACORN during the debate, the Illinois senator chided McCain for making the affiliations the “centerpiece” of his campaign.

By Phillis Schlafly
Townhall and The Washington Times
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The media are piling on against John McCain and some pundits are predicting it’s all over, that Barack Obama has somehow won the election. As the old saying goes, it’s not over until the fat lady sings, and it’s high time for the fat lady to sing about Obama’s scary agenda and the many reasons why it is too risky to elect him president.

We need to hear more about ACORN, the special-interest group that would like to steal this election by registering people who are not eligible to vote, such as registering ghost voters in Nevada under the names of the Dallas Cowboys. Obama’s years of close association with ACORN need to be known to the public.

We should hear more about Obama’s political friend William Ayers, the unrepentant bomber and Ward Churchill-type professor, who has a really scary plan to remake the curriculum of public schools in order to turn kids into radical socialists like himself. Obama helped deliver big bucks to Ayers’ radical education project in Chicago.

Obama has already introduced one bill in the U.S. Senate called “Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act,” which would implement Ayers’ social-outcome notions, and another to teach kindergartners Al Gore’s propaganda about climate change. Voters should be reminded that Obama has called for making “sure your child can speak Spanish.”

Senator Obama is certainly an extremist: labeled the most liberal Senator among the 100 in the Senate. But apparently he may be a racist, or someone in his election campaign committee could be….

Because only 6% of U.S. media journalists describe themselves as conservatives, the liberal media has allowed Senator Obama to glide though the primary season without too much criticism.

By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
March 19, 2008

And I will certainly be called a racist and dismissed as a racist, if not by Senator Obama then by his campaign committee. That is their modus operandi. I know this because they have already accused and trashed President Bill Clinton (“The First Black President”) and Geraldine Ferraro (twice).

Geraldine Ferraro

Last Tuesday, March 18, 2008, the candidate that promised to transcend race and racism and unite all Americans for change, spoke with admiration about his pastor, a man that brought him to Christianity, married him, preached to him for about twenty years, baptized his children, took his donations of more than $22,000.00 (in one year), and prayed with him before the good Senator started his quest for the White House.

That pastor, one might surmise, is anti-American and racist because of the now infamous comments he has “preached” from the pulpit of his church in the name of Jesus Christ and God Almighty.
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But don’t believe me, a White Man married to a “Person of Color,” just re-read some of the Reverend (some say Bishop) Jeramiah Wright’s sermons. Or watch the videos and listen to the true bile this man has dished out for years in Christ’s name.

Reverend Wright told his congregation that the Government of the United States was waging a war of genocide against people of color using HIV/AIDS.

I tell you in all honesty: any person of any color who tells me the U.S. government is intentionally killing off its citizens by any means is divisive and deserves condemnation — unless certain proof can be put on the table.

This came from the religious advisor of a candidate for President of the United States who told us he would unite us and rise above race and racism and condemn those that were divisive.
Senator Obama and Rev. Wright. Distance between them?

Rev. Wright called the USA “the KKK of A.”

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Rev. Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks — by its own terrorism.

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Wright said. “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

In a 2003 sermon, he said Black people, African Americans, should condemn the United States.

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

So, after participating in services orchestrated by Rev. Wright for twenty years, Senator Obama never said a disparaging remark about his pastor or made an effort to set the record straight. Until Tuesday.

Senator Obama condemned his pastor for his less than truthful and uniting and honest language but he refused to distance himself by withdrawing from his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ in South Chicago.

And, while uniting us, Senator Obama, apparently seeking an excuse or some justification, invoked the names of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, his Grandmother, and Geraldine Ferraro (for the second time — but the first time since she resigned from the Hillary Clinton for President campaign). He even made a veiled reference to “The First Black President.”Win McNamee, Getty Images

The former President said during the New Hampshire primary about Senator Obama, “Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.” And for this, and comparing the Obama campaign to the campaign years ago of Jesse Jackson, President Clinton was attacked as a racist.

In his speech Tuesday Senator Obama grabbed all his White racist relatives, friends, and historical icons and threw them under the bus.

For what purpose? The record of racism by White people is pretty well established, I think, and White America has gone out of its way to atone, I think.

The “Great Uniter” who said he would “Rise Above Race” has played the race card like a two bit Kansas City saloon gambler in 1880. How many race cards does he have up his sleeve? And when will we discuss in detail the real issues?

Race is important, sure, but Ken Blackwell of the Family Research organization says Senator Obama favors $1 Billion in new taxes. In this recession, that will push my bride’s small business into the red — and there are no buyers right now in this economy.

Apparently, and I could be wrong, while Senator Obama was a student at Harvard Law School, he learned how to use slick language and give wonderful sounding speeches. But he didn’t learn how to make good argument and he missed the chapters on honesty and integrity entirely, I think, if Tuesday’s speech is an example of his thinking and logic.

But I could be wrong.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to supporters during a campaign stop at the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia, March 20, 2008.REUTER/John Sommers II (Reuters)

I became a believer in the “freedom of the press” and the great importance the media plays in good government and accountability during the last eleven years. It was eleven years ago this summer that I retired from the U.S. Navy, an organization with a sometimes jaundiced eye on the media. Just eleven years ago this summer I decided to become a journalist myself.

During this eleven year journey, I have seen the power of the free press “up close and personal,” as they say, here in the U.S.A. I have also witnessed the terrible and disgusting disregard for truth and free media in places like China and Vietnam. In those two countries and others, the lack of a free and open media allows government human rights abuses and downright malfeasance to thrive.

Here in the U.S. I am proud to say that I supported The Washington Post in its campaign to right the many wrongs of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and its lack of appropriate follow-up for soldiers under their care. We have also applauded many papers who stimulated the Congress to pay more attention to the equipment sent to support our soldiers during the current war.

Every now and again a journalist, even a fledgling like me, gets to see some small product of his or her work reflected in one of the great bastions of journalistic excellence.

Today I was reminded of something I wrote in 2003, which echoed across the pages of the Washington Post and New York Times just recently.

In the Washington Times on October 26, 2003 I was proud to see published my essay “District Leadership is a National Disgrace.” The piece pointed toward numerous leadership and management lapses on the part of the elected and appointed caretakers of the government of the District of Columbia. A part of that essay dealing with the D.C. schools read, “As the school year started in 2003, School superintendent Vance was shocked to learn that the entire school system’s budget would only pay his system’s staff until Sept. 30. The superintendent is also a ‘fat cat’ with an enormous salary. Meanwhile, the schools are in a decrepit state of repair. Last winter, several school days were lost at more than one school because the furnaces wouldn’t start. Cost of educating the elementary school students in the District? Among the highest in the nation. Grades and measures of effectiveness? Among the lowest.”

Fast forward to 2007. In Fact, take a peak at the New York Times editorial of September 4, 2007, under the headline “National Disgrace.” That editorial reads in part, “remaking the schools [of the District of Columbia] will inevitably mean dismantling a central bureaucracy that has shown a disturbing talent for subverting reform while failing the city and its children in every conceivable way.”

Bravo New York Times. And Bravo also to the Washington Post, which earlier this summer ran a multiple part series exposing the many problems of the D.C. school system. And Bravo finally to the Washington Times, which has been exposing the malfeasance foisted upon the people of the District of Columbia by elected and appointed highly paid “public servants” for years.

In today’s Washington Times, a page one headline reads, “D.C. textbook chief appealed firing.” You see, one Donald Winstead, the lone manager of the school system’s often-troubled textbook department, was fired by former schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman in 1998 after books were not delivered in a timely manner. The Times’ Gary Emerling wrote that, “Mr. Winstead was reinstated in his position Dec. 19, 2000, following a settlement reached a day earlier between Mr. Winstead and the school system through the D.C. Office of Employee Appeals.”

Needless to say, the textbook situation in D.C. schools is still a disaster. In an August 7, 2007 Washington Times article Mr. Gary Emerling wrote, “The new [D.C. school system] chancellor has faced several difficulties that have plagued the system for years, including news that at least half of the city’s 146 schools may not have textbooks by the time school starts and that others will not have air conditioning.”

So, to those who doubt that a free and open media is a good thing for our nation, our society and, in fact, all nations everywhere; we ask them to look no further than the capital of the United States of America. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Washington Times may just help bring change to a very troubled and corrupt school system.

We are proud of these newspapers and the journalists who serve the people.

This brings us to the case of Virginia Tech. Parents, in good faith, entrusted the University and the Commonwealth of Virginia leadership with the safety, care and education of their children. Last April, many of those children died unnecessarily.

Last April 16, at Virginia Tech, two students were found dead in a campus dorm room. This had never before occurred. Not on this campus. Not at Virginia Tech.

The police “assumed” a domestic dispute was the cause. The campus remained un-alerted.

During the last academic year, at Virginia Tech, an English teacher had a student exhibiting such unusual, some said evil, writing and actions that other students would not come to class if he attended. The teacher alerted the university and nothing happened.

The school sent the student for medical care — a mental evaluation in fact — and then never checked to verify his status or condition. He may have been diagnosed as a threat to the university population yet the school didn’t follow up.

The Virginia Tech study panel that reported to Virginia Governor Tim Kaine recommended no accountability from anybody following scores of deaths on the campus.

Kaine said the school’s officials had “suffered enough” without losing their jobs.

The parents of the dead have questions.

USA Today asked, in a September 4, 2007 editorial, “Why did so many keep Cho’s [the Virginia Tech killer] problems to themselves? Certainly they underestimated the threat. But more important, many incorrectly believed that privacy laws prevented sharing the information. Interpreting the law narrowly is the ‘least risky’ path for a university to take, the report concludes.”

We wonder why more news media members and commentators have not spoken out about the lack of accountability at Virginia Tech? Where is the uproar similar to the one that engulfed Senator Larry Craig and maybe will cost him his job? More than thirty innocent students and teachers are dead and nobody is accountable. Yet because of the media a Senator has offered his resignation.

The relatives of the Victims in the Virginia Tech massacre deserve to be heard. And they deserve more appropriate action from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
********************District Leadership is a National Disgrace

By John E. Carey
The Washington Times
October 26, 2003

Just after hurricane Isabel passed, there was some talk that the leadership of the District of Columbia had been less than cordial in its dealings with the federal government throughout the crisis. Metro, some said with city blessing, shut down on Thursday at 11 a.m. without very much consultation with the federal government. Consequently, the feds were compelled to cancel the workday entirely.

After the hurricane, city officials cited city ordinances in an effort to get more of the FEMA financial aid pie than their neighbors in Maryland or Virginia. FEMA and its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, rightly rebuffed District officials.

Here are a few tidbits of information we have learned about the District of Columbia during the last few years (much of it from The Washington Times).

–The police chief continues to collect perks and pay raises year after year. He was hired to reduce crime. In fact, crime is up. The crime rate in D.C. is about 50 percent greater than other cities with similar populations. What is down is the police department’s success rate in crime-solving (one of the lowest in the nation). The disgracefully inept execution of the Chandra Levy case reminds us of how badly the police department functions.

–Our fire chief a few years back, one Ronny Few, had apparently “padded” his resume to secure his job. When exposed by the newspaper, he blamed the mayor’s office. Finger-pointing in City Hall ensued but nobody took responsibility for the shoddy way candidates for city jobs are vetted. The chief had also hired several cronies. Their resumes, we discovered, were also inflated, falsified or otherwise inaccurate.Meanwhile, several fire stations were in a decrepit state, a house fire had to be doused by a nearby garden hose because the fire truck had so many problems, and someone actually died due to the inefficiency of the 911 operators.

–Recently, the District’s inspector general resigned. His resume was also inflated. Do we see a trend beginning to emerge? The incumbent mayor’s re-election committee forged many of the required signatures to get the mayor on the ballot. If he is such a great leader, how can he tolerate such conduct? And why was fraud preferred over obtaining legal signatures?

–The president of the University of the District of Columbia lives in a publicly owned mansion. The taxpayers recently paid for a “renovation” of this estate that cost more than $215,000. “Repairs” included the addition of Italian granite and marble countertops worth more than $9,000. The university president also has a handsome salary. Yet the University of the District of Columbia’s Law School is rated dead last among more than 230 law schools rated by the American Bar Association. The percentage of graduates that pass the bar the first time is 22 percent. Only two colleges have rates in the 30th percentile and two schools are in the 40th percentile. All other law schools can boast that at least half the graduates pass the bar on the first try. The cost of educating a law student at UDC? The highest in the nation.

–As the school year started in 2003, School superintendent Vance was shocked to learn that the entire school system’s budget would only pay his system’s staff until Sept. 30. The superintendent is also a “fat cat” with an enormous salary. Meanwhile, the schools are in a decrepit state of repair. Last winter, several school days were lost at more than one school because the furnaces wouldn’t start. Cost of educating the elementary school students in the District? Among the highest in the nation. Grades and measures of effectiveness? Among the lowest.

–The D.C. coroner recently resigned. The morgue is in such disastrous condition that opportunities for forensics resolution to many crimes is seriously doubted. Overall, working for the District of Columbia government provides the best pay, bonus and retirement structure of almost any city in the nation.

Finally, the District of Columbia would like to tax commuters who come to the city to work. This is one way the banana republic preys upon its neighbors. Traffic enforcement cameras, predatory parking enforcement, towing and other practices contribute to the city coffers and to the ill will the city engenders in the neighborhood.

So I ask the voters in the District of Columbia, “Do you have the best government money can buy? Are you satisfied and content? Are you proud of your city and your flag?”